Minerals

Question 1

Define minerals

Answer 1

A mineral is a naturally occurring substance with distinctive chemical and physical properties, composition and atomic structure.

Question 2

3 rocks or minerals found in WA that provide valuable resources and how are they extracted

Answer 2

• Iron ore (blasted and dug up from open pit mines)
• Gold (most production comes from open-cut mines)
• Nickel (lateritic ore)

Question 3

Define ore

Answer 3

A natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals

Question 4

How are ores found

Answer 4

• Refined (The process of separating a metal from the rest of the minerals in the ore)
• Extracted (the process of enriching the metal to become purer by removing unwanted elements like carbon, oxygen or phosphorous)

Question 5

What is Moh’s hardness scale

Answer 5

A set of ten reference minerals (numbered 1 through 10) are used to determine the relative hardness of minerals and other objects and the minerals’ use.

Question 6

Properties of rocks

Answer 6

• Crystal structure (molecular structure - how atoms in chemical composition are arranged at the atomic level)
• Crystalline habit (shape minerals form into at a macro level due to their crystal structures)
• Cleavage
• Lustre (the appearance of a mineral surface in terms of its light-reflective qualities)
• Streak (colour of a mineral when in powder form)
• Colour (the chemical composition causes the light to be absorbed in particular ways causing minerals to appear in different colours)
• Density (how ‘tightly’ the atoms of a mineral are packed together, minerals tend to become heavier as they get denser)

Question 7

Define crystal

Answer 7

A solid material whose constituents are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions